The award recognizes people who have demonstrated excellence and integrity and have made a substantial contribution to the practice of family law in Virginia. The award will be presented during the section’s 29th annual Advanced Family Law Seminar on April 25, 2013, in Richmond.

Tweel has practiced law for more than forty years and has been with MichieHamlett since 1975. He has been a substitute judge in general and juvenile district courts and an adjunct professor of law at the University of Virginia School of Law. He also has been chair of the Charlottesville Albemarle Bar Association and chair of the Family Law Section of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association. He is a member of the Family Law Coalition.

In his letter nominating Tweel for the award, attorney William C. Scott IV noted that Tweel “has given his time to Legal Aid and many charities selflessly and has taken a multitude of pro bono cases throughout his career, even all the way to the court of appeals, never expecting to get paid but always fighting for ‘the little guy.’… Ron Tweel loves the practice of law and he epitomizes what a lawyer should be, providing zealous representation of his clients but also always showing the greatest professionalism while practicing law.”

Tweel is a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, the American Bar Foundation, the American College of Family Lawyers, and the Virginia Law Foundation. He is on the board of governors of the National Center for Family Law, University of Richmond.

He received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1971. He received his bachelor of science degree from Hampden-Sydney College in 1968.